Asia Times: Nobody is talking after Michael D’Andrea, the CIA’s top Iran Mission Center chief, is allegedly killed in plane crash – A USAF Bombardier E11A intelligence gathering jet was cruising over Afghanistan on a secret mission, transporting two crewmen and allegedly, a mysterious chain-smoking CIA operative, Michael D’Andrea — also known as Dark Prince
Foreign Policy: As dissidents are attacked and murdered, critics liken the National Directorate of Security to the brutal intelligence service of the Afghan communists in the 1980s. When Nazar Mohammad Motmaeen talks about the National Directorate of Security (NDS), the Afghan intelligence service with close ties to the CIA, he becomes nervous. “They are dangerous,
Frud Bezhan Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty February 7, 2020 When Syria’s civil war erupted, Iran’s powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) recruited, trained, and deployed thousands of Shi’ite fighters to prop up the regime of President Bashar al-Assad. Among them was the Fatemiyoun Brigade, comprised mainly of Afghans from the country’s Shi’ite Hazara minority. From
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty February 7, 2020 U.S. officials say an American appears to have been kidnapped in Afghanistan by a group linked to Taliban militants. The officials on February 6 said they believe that 57-year-old Mark Frerichs of Illinois was kidnapped by the Haqqani network, which is based in Khost. It was not immediately
Ayaz Gul VOA News February 5, 2020 ISLAMABAD – U.S. President Donald Trump in the State of the Union address has endorsed peace talks with the Taliban in Afghanistan, saying his administration is working to end America’s longest war to bring troops back home from that country. The Afghan insurgent group swiftly responded to Tuesday
1TV: Speaking at a Heritage Foundation event this week, Jack Keane, a former vice chief of staff of the US Army, said that Pakistan’s intelligence service and its army have been supporting the Taliban. He said that Pakistan was harboring the Taliban at Miramshah and Quetta and it supported two fertilizer factories where 85 percent
Press TV February 3, 2020 US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has demanded “demonstrable evidence” from the Taliban that they have the capacity to reduce violence before signing a deal to end America’s longest war, even though official military figures show that in the last quarter of 2019 the US dropped a record number
Frud Bezhan Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty February 3, 2020 Afghanistan’s Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) says it is investigating video footage that shows an Afghan woman being stoned to death. The two-minute clip shows a group of men throwing rocks at a covered woman who is lying in a hole that has been dug in
Michael Hughes: It may seem enigmatic that during the same period the U.S. government and Taliban made unprecedented progress towards a peace agreement they unleashed unprecedented levels of violence. This is not a mysterious paradox, however, but a direct – and predictable – result of the so-called “fighting and talking” strategy that both sides have
Press TVJanuary 31, 2020 A US government watchdog has announced a surge in violent attacks in its war in Afghanistan, saying they climbed to record levels in the last quarter of 2019. “Enemy-initiated attacks” rose sharply last year, with the fourth quarter seeing a total of 8,204 attacks — up from 6,974 in the same